


Contrition/Redemption

by FetidCorpse



Category: RWBY
Genre: Bizarre Use of Tags by the Author, Exhaustion, F/F, Gen, Morality, release
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-10-13 04:27:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17481161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FetidCorpse/pseuds/FetidCorpse
Summary: Blake and Yang wake up the day after the events of V6E12 and muse about the previous day.





	Contrition/Redemption

“I thought I would feel guilty. He made me feel guilty about everything else, even things I was ordered to do by our superiors in the White Fang.” Blake hadn't spoken much since the previous day. Adam's intervention had thrown a wrench in their plan and threatened the city of Argus. Yang and Blake had been exhausted after impaling Adam, and their day was far from over. After a brief respite, they had fought off a few groups of Ursai, Creeps, and Beowolves that had been moving toward Argus along with the Leviathan and a legion of Manticores. Neither had the energy to talk after that, collapsing together on Saffron and Terra's floor and waking up the next day covered in blankets to the smell of too much breakfast for any group that didn't include Ruby and Nora. “I feel sad, but there's also so much relief. Every time I tried to dissuade him and turn him from his path, he turned it around. I wish he'd listened. I wish he'd taken the chances to redeem himself, but he did it to himself. Adam stopped trying to solve problems without violence years ago.”

Yang, who had been starring at Blake's scar, now raised her eyes to Blake's face. “It's easy to talk about how everyone can be redeemed, how everyone can be forgiven, but it doesn't often happen outside of the fairy-tales I used to read to Ruby. When offered a chance to repent, people usually double-down. I've always thought that contrition is needed for redemption, and Adam wasn't strong enough to accept what he'd done, what he was responsible for. It would have been one thing if he'd been able to see that he'd done anything wrong, that he was responsible for his actions and the results of them. It doesn't seem like any of that came to him, no matter what you or anyone else said.”

Blake nodded, “It was never his fault, and frequently mine.” She grimaced. “I didn't realize just how little responsibility he took for his own actions until Beacon. He blamed me for his actions and said I was responsible for all his pain. I can't believe I didn't see how much he'd been divorced from reality before then. Then Ilia told me he killed Sienna Khan, the old leader of the White Fang, thinking that he'd earned the 'promotion' after joining the slaughter at the fall of Beacon. I don't know if I ever knew the real Adam before Beacon. I think I was too young and too naive to see the truth. I don't feel bad about killing him, he was too single-minded. He was determined to hurt us. It's tragic, but we gave him chances to stop. I wish it hadn't come to this, but I knew he'd try again after Haven. I just thought we had more time before he'd show up again. I hoped he'd finally listen after losing and ruining the White Fang. Is my sorrow misplaced? I might be mourning a myth.”

Yang pulled Blake into a hug and murmured into Blake's upper ears, “It's not wrong to mourn. Another person might have used that brand to draw attention to the SDC's awful practices, instead of seeking to avenge himself against an entire race. He seems like the same sort of person as my mother. She called others weak, but she'd stab anyone in the back to keep herself safe. She thought that she was strong for being able to hurt others and take from them. She and Adam didn't see that a world full of people as 'strong' as them would die. No one would build; no one would create. It would be the end of life on Remnant. That's not strength. I shamed my mother into fleeing without the lamp, but I think she's still on the same path that took her away from her family after I was born. She's still alive, but I couldn't help but mourn over the person she could have been.” Yang sighed before sitting up, dragging Blake up with her. “Let's get breakfast before Nora wakes up.”

**Author's Note:**

> I saw a few reactions to the episode where people thought Yang and Blake should be conflicted about killing Adam. This seemed like a bad take to me. Adam was at least as aggressive and violent as a Grimm, a literal avatar of dark emotions. Remnant is not the (relatively) peaceful world that we live in. Peace in Remnant is bought by blood and Dust, and it is constantly threatened. A huntress or huntsman cannot afford to hesitate to take the life of someone who threatens that peace (I hope that we see Ruby face that issue someday, she seems prepared for fighting Grimm, but less so for humans/faunus).
> 
> I thought that the two would be right to be sad about what had to happen, but neither would dispute the necessity of Adam's death. The above was what came from those thoughts.


End file.
